The invention relates generally to control systems, and more particularly to process control employing novel techniques for determining batch performance characteristics of a biofuel production plant.
During the course of operating a biofuel production plant, various parameters may be determined to indicate the performance of the plant. For example, an operator may compare the performance of one batch with previous batches using a parameter. Such comparisons may enable the operator to improve the performance of the plant. One such parameter may be the yield of a fermenter batch, which represents the amount of product created from a given amount of raw material. However, existing methods for determining the fermenter yield suffer from various disadvantages. For example, some methods involve offsite measurements, involve infrequent measurements, are impractical for continuous monitoring, are unreliable, and/or fail to provide yields for individual batches.